Energy news in general

wild666

brewerdave said:

Very surprised that there haven't been announcements about Together Energy - they owe £12.4m still in overdue renewable obligations and have been in discussions with "restructuring advisers" . Elsewhere there are tales of customers receiving demands for huge increases in DD payments which suggests (to me anyway) that they are in the final throes before closure.

Any company that increases DD by a large percentage of the original DD is IMHO, having serious money difficulties. OFTM wanted to raise my DD from £50 to £120 in November 2018, that's why I left them, they never got to take the money. They are still hanging on but I suspect they will go under in the next few months. 

brewerdave

Apparently OFGEM have extended the deadline for Together Energy to pay the overdue Renewables Obligation of £12.4m plus interest ,until end of January - presumably didn't want another supplier failure just before Xmas !!
Warrington Borough Council who own 50% of T.E ,have declined to loan them any more!

Sea_Shell

Another thought...

Will suppliers be able to pass these additional charges onto customers that are currently under a fix?

If not, does it swing the advice away from "do nothing" to "consider fixing, even at above current cap prices"?  Before this all becomes official?

Or will it already have been factored into the expensive fixed deals currently being offered?

Free crystal ball, with every KW!!! 😉

spot1034

Sea_Shell said:

Another thought...

Will suppliers be able to pass these additional charges onto customers that are currently under a fix?

If not, does it swing the advice away from "do nothing" to "consider fixing, even at above current cap prices"?  Before this all becomes official?

Or will it already have been factored into the expensive fixed deals currently being offered?

Free crystal ball, with every KW!!! 😉

You do need a crystal ball because we have no idea how much wholesale rates will have fallen by the time all this happens. Also there could be fierce competition between the surviving suppliers to secure market share - a marked contrast to the situation we are in right now!. 

QrizB

Sea_Shell said:

So a non SoLR supplier will "charge" customers, and collect the money but they have to pass the money back up the chain, to be paid to the effected SoLRs.  Yes?

Yes, that's how I understand it works.

Sea_Shell said:

Deleted_User said:

@[Deleted User] So it's gone up from £240 to £300 each while I've been typing! 

Over what period?  Annually, or per cap cycle (6 months)

Spread over two years, in this case. Some costs over 12 months from April 2022 and some from April 2023.

wakeupalarm said:

How much extra costs are added for all the extra administration of passing the costs/bills/charges along in this chain?

The billing system already exists for all the other things the networks charge for, so the additional costs should be tiny. It just means changing some numbers in a database somewhere then the system will work it all out.

Sea_Shell said:

Will suppliers be able to pass these additional charges onto customers that are currently under a fix?

It will depend on what the T&C say. Usually a fix allows for changes in eg. VAT rates, but I don't know wehether network operator charges are one of the recognised reasons.

Sea_Shell

There are going to be a lot of angry, confused, bewildered and skint customers come April!!! 😡🤔😱😲

Us lot, trying to get a handle on it all, are probably in the tiny minority of the wider consumer base 😇...and even we're struggling to get our heads round it! 🤯

"Interesting" times ahead.  

brewerdave

Sea_Shell said:

There are going to be a lot of angry, confused, bewildered and skint customers come April!!! 😡🤔😱😲

Us lot, trying to get a handle on it all, are probably in the tiny minority of the wider consumer base 😇...and even we're struggling to get our heads round it! 🤯

"Interesting" times ahead.  

I'm a member of a support group for customers of Together Energy on FB. The people now joining (in general) have virtually no understanding of what is currently going on and are already struggling big time. Come April there is going to be an almighty storm !!!

[Deleted User]

Regarding 'better alternatives' for Bulb than that decided on.

FT and Bloomberg News win legal challenge to see court documents from energy regulator Ofgem about the collapse of provider Bulb. A judge said: "The proceedings in question are of obvious interest and importance to the public"

Court documents filed last week as Bulb entered special administration show that Ofgem recommended the more expensive route as it worried about the domino effect that the supplier’s collapse could otherwise set off.

Ofgem usually deals with failed companies by moving their customers to a new supplier, something called the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process.

However Bulb’s size qualified it for the Special Administration Regime (SAR), which means it will run as normal, but with an administrator in charge.

The Ofgem documents, released on Friday, show that the regulator estimates that the SoLR process would have cost the new supplier £1.28 billion.

In comparison, administrators last week estimated that it would cost around £2.1 billion to keep Bulb trading until April.

[Deleted User]

BG pledge more money/grants to help those in debt. 

https://www.choose.co.uk/news/2021/british-gas-pledge-more-money-support-customers/

Sea_Shell

Deleted_User said:

BG pledge more money/grants to help those in debt. 

https://www.choose.co.uk/news/2021/british-gas-pledge-more-money-support-customers/

Haven't those at risk of persistent debt on their accounts already been moved onto pre-pay meters? 

Are you able to run up that sort of debt on a pre-pay meter?   Or is it debt that's been carried over?

I know they have an element of emergency credit, but I thought the whole point of them was that you couldn't get into (further) debt, or am I wrong?